Thursday, March 10, 2016

Perez Heisted on His Own Petard

A Florida man orchestrated the heist of gold bars worth millions of dollars from a tractor trailer headed to Massachusetts last year by hatching an elaborate plan to force the crew to pull over in North Carolina, authorities said in court papers.

The allegations against Adalberto Perez, 46, of Opa Locka, Fla., were made public in papers unsealed Thursday in US District Court in Miami, where he is charged with masterminding the March 2015 robbery in North Carolina, in which three gunmen made off with $4.8 million in gold bars.

Perez was ordered held Thursday on charges of conspiring to commit the robbery and to possess a gun to further the crime, pending a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday. He did not enter a plea.

His lawyer, Frank J. Gaviria, declined to discuss the specific allegations but said Perez intends to “vigorously fight against these accusations.”

According to a complaint filed in the case, the robbery of the truck belonging to the Miami-based shipping company TransValue Inc. occurred on March 1, 2015 on Interstate 95 in Wilson County, N.C. The truck was bound for the Bridgewater area, records show.

A person identified only as a cooperating source told the FBI in January that Perez planned the caper and robbed the truck with two other men, the complaint said.

The source had a “close, personal relationship” with Perez and lived with him for a time, records show. The source told agents that Perez indicated that before the robbery, he placed a GPS device under the trailer to track its location, and that he and his two accomplices also placed pepper spray inside the truck, the complaint said.

Perez could release the pepper spray remotely, the source said, and the employees inside the truck stopped on the interstate because they began to feel sick.

The robbers set upon the two employees at gunpoint and bound them before fleeing with the gold, records show. In addition, the thieves ignored containers of silver and went directly for the canisters of gold, suggesting they knew what they were looking for, according to legal filings.

Perez told the source that the three men split the gold equally, and Perez began selling his share, using the proceeds to buy three Nissan vehicles, three homes, and a boat, according to the complaint.

The records did not indicate how Perez allegedly gained access to the trailer before the robbery, and a spokeswoman for US Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer declined to comment.

It was not clear on Friday if prosecutors know the identities of the other two gunmen or if anyone else will be charged. In July, another man, Miguel Bovar, pleaded guilty to an extortion charge related to the robbery, records show.

Jay Rodriguez, chief executive of TransValue, said in an e-mail that Perez is not a former employee, and the company is “looking into all possible scenarios.”

"A shooting erupted inside a nightclub packed with hundreds of people in the city’s tourist district early Sunday, killing two people and injuring 10 others, authorities said. It was the second mass shooting at a Florida nightclub over the weekend."Looking forward to it.This blog will be going dark then.NDU:

MIAMI — A northeast Florida woman whose 4-year-old son accidentally shot her in the back while they were traveling in her pickup truck is apparently a gun lover who made numerous social media postings about gun rights.

A community Facebook page listed under Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense was filled with posts advocating for gun rights, including a quote that says ‘‘My right to protect my child with my gun trumps your fear of my gun.’’The primary is down there, Trump is being savaged again with the race card, the voting machines have been rigged, and I get all this code word crap coming from the paper.

And that user also posted later replied to a comment about teaching children to shoot: ‘‘All of ours know how to shoot too. Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22.’’

Then she got what she deserved, right? Except that the boy didn't kill her like the cops did.

The Associated Press was unable to verify whether the page, which has since been taken down, belonged to Gilt. A person who answered the phone at her house on Thursday morning declined to comment.

Putnam County Sheriff’s investigators were trying on Thursday to determine how the boy got his hands on the gun they say he used to shoot his mother. Putnam County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Joseph Wells said a deputy saw her behaving frantically inside the truck, which was stopped partially in the road. The deputy then saw she'd been shot in the back and the bullet had exited from her stomach area, Wells said.

Gilt told deputies her son had accidentally shot her, according to Wells. She was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition, but investigators had not been able to interview her, Wells said.

The boy, who wasn’t injured, is with relatives. The Florida Department of Children and Families also is investigating.I hope there DCF is way better than our house of horrors up here (public records law is way better).Print ended it there.

Before it was removed from public view, the ‘‘Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense’’ Facebook page featured many posts from other pages supporting gun ownership and vilifying proposals for more gun control.The short description of the page on Facebook said it was a place ‘‘to connect people that share a common goal. That goal is to protect and expand our 2nd Amendment rights.’’After the news broke about Gilt’s shooting, the posts appeared to be inundated with mocking comments from other Facebook users.In comments posted March 7 to one post on the page, a user named Jamie Gilt wrote: ‘‘I can promise though, if someone breaks into my house, or tries to harm me or my family pretty anywhere, they will be shot and most likely killed. It’s my right to protect my life.’’I certainly feel that way, and will never convict a person of killing an intruder.Investigators are trying to determine whether to bring charges against Gilt.Under Florida law, it is a misdemeanor for someone to store or leave a loaded gun where a child has access to it.‘‘They must keep firearms secured and locked,’’ Wells said.

--more--"No offense, but I'm beginning to wonder if what I read in the paper ever even happened, or whether it is all, all fabricated, agenda-pushing slop.As for the failing bu$ine$$ models, the pre$$ has not one to blame but themselves.UPDATE: Authorities want charge for mom of 4-year-old who shot herLooks like her Gilt has been pre-determined.

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